Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with contacts

Lost Blackbery info, help!

Unnecessarily Sarcastic Bitch — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:25:25 -0800

Help, I've lost all my address book and appointment calender from my Blackberry! I have a Blackberry Curve, either an 8300 or 8500. Last week it started acting up, the roller ball wouldn't work, so I got a replacement BB sent to me via RIM. Once I got the new BB, I took my SD cards out and put them in the new BB, packaged up the defective one and sent it on its way.

However, after it was already sent off, I realized that NONE of my contacts, phone numbers or appointments were on the new BB! My pictures and music were, but nothing else! I do not synce the BB with anything, just enter the data directly on the phone.

My entire list of contacts, over 500 people and all my appointments are gone! What can I do to get them back?

How can I dial back the crazy eyes?

wexford_arts — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:30:51 -0800

How can I dial back the crazy eyes? I've noticed that many of the candid and posed photos of me over the last 10 years show me with very wide open eyes, with some white showing above the iris. While it's not totally surprising to find in some animated candid shots, I don't like the intense, crazy look in ID photos and the like.

I've worn contacts for about 25 years, have spent much of that time on computer work, and have recently started using drugstore magnifying glasses to make computer work easier.

So here's my questions.

1) Why am I seeing this now, when older pictures of me don't show this effect? I have been told by an optometrist that contacts and/or years of computer work have led to the extra widening of my eyes. Does this make sense? Would moving to glasses instead of contacts help?

2) How can I overcome this? I try to consciously relax my eyes when posing for pictures, but even so, my most recent ID card looks as if I'm contemplating turning the photographer into stew. I'm afraid that the old "close your eyes, then open them just before the picture is taken" trick will make things worse. Any other ideas?

I don't think it should be hurting this long

Hakaisha — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:00:09 -0800

Is it normal to have recurring headaches while wearing contacts? Yes, YANMD. I started wearing contacts for the first time this past September (soft hydrogels). Got fitted properly, tested out a pair, prescription/comfort was good, bought a batch, hooray.

Of course, during the start-up period I had the usual headache/slightly nauseous feeling. I always have this whenever even a slight change is made to my prescription (I got new glasses at about the same time and that gave me a headache for a few days too), so I wasn't surprised. I adjusted to my glasses, adjusted to my contacts, and I thought all was golden.

Well, I don't actually wear my contacts as frequently as I'd like. I'm a student and I'm in chemistry labs 5 days a week, where contacts are strictly forbidden; contacts are generally for weekend use. And the last month I haven't touched my contacts at all save for a brief hour-long stint; 've been pulling lots of late nights and such and my eyes were generally too puffy and whatnot to have contacts in there comfortably. (As exemplified by the previous hour-long stint.)

So I finally put my contacts in today. I'm sure they're not inverted, I got the right eye to the right lens, they've been cleaned properly, etc. Vision is good, comfort is good...except the headache/nausea is back. And my friend who I was complaining to was like "...you're the only one I know who has problems with contacts for this long. You should be used to them by now." I'm like "...but I went a while without wearing them...?"

Is this normal? Should I be concerned?

How to export AutoArchive e-mail exported & transferred from MS Outlook

willie11 — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:40:40 -0800

Help me get my AutoArchived e-mail out of MS Outlook and the info from off Exchange server before work shuts it down tonight, please. I'm dumbfounded. Old job is shutting down my e-mail account today and I'd like to take all of my contacts, calender and saved e-mails for my own use. I know how to export the contacts as an excel file but I cannot find the "AutoArchive" folder on my hard disk.

The IT folks delete all messages from the sever after 9 weeks or so, but my desktop version of Outlook tells me that it autoarchives the messages. Where can I find these and how to I get them?

Also, what could I import them to? Gmail? My iPhone?

The iPhone (not synched with the server, which uses something called GOOD) seems to import contacts, calender etc from Outlook. Is there a way to upload the contacts, calender and ESPECIALLY the AutoArchived email to Gmail so I have them permanently? Or at least save the AutoArchived messages?

Many, many thanks for your help!

Will a Fraternal Organization Help Me Land a Job

willnot — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:11:24 -0800

I'm interested in expanding my professional network. I belong to a professional association, but I'm wondering if some broader club might also make sense. Would a fraternal organization be likely to help me if I ever wanted to move up in business, or are they vestigial antiques of the past? What else might I think about joining, and what could I get out of it in addition to contacts? I'm in Los Angeles, in the South Bay, if you have specific local recommendations.

Help a massive sissy get contact lenses

paultopia — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:27:11 -0800

I'm a long-term glasses wearer who is going to try to make the leap to contacts. Problem: I have a really strong flinch reflex/phobia of things going into my eye. What to do about this? I tend to freak out and pull away, e.g., during eye exams when they blow air into the eye or, worse, bring a microscope very close to my eye. The optometrist says I'll "maybe" be able to get contacts, and that he has seen worse (i.e., people fainting when the microscope gets close), but that I'm pretty bad.

I have a "training" appointment for contacts on Friday. What can I do to prepare for this? Does anyone else with a flinch reflex/eye phobia have any tips or stories about getting through this and getting comfortable with contacts?

(And should I have a couple drinks [etc.] beforehand, or is that a really stupid idea?)

Estranged pieces of metal in an Organ from the 1960s are the topic of the day

tmcw — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:33:36 -0800

Fixing an old transistor organ: how do I fix these switches that seem to rely on the springiness of metal in order to make contact? So, I'm working on fixing this big ol' Doric organ (previously), and I stumbled upon a big break: it appears that the voices, as well as the vibrato, may not be broken, but just the switch activating them. However, this switch seems to rely on the exact same principle as the key contacts, and that principle is failing hard fourty-something years after this thing was built.

See this picture for a quick hint.

Basically, two wires, one which is the contact and stays at a certain place, and the second which is supposed to spring onto that contact when the key is depressed. Unfortunately, the second one is no longer very springy and I believe that these contacts are a bit rusty/bad.

So, contact cleaner is obvious solution #1, but the other problem is that with a few of these buttons, the piece of metal which is supposed to move onto the other just doesn't, and I don't have much of a way of bending it, since the furthest it can travel right now is the other contact. Also, just rebending this wire is a temporary fix, I'd guess, since, after all, it'll bend back like it has over all these years, leaving the next aspiring electrician thinking that the vibrato circuit is broken.

So, please let me know your thoughts! I am not even sure what the term for this 'keying system' is called, so my google-powers are weak. And any help would be so, so appreciated!

Thanks!

Easy on the eyes--literally--contacts?

zardoz — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:41:38 -0800

After giving up on contacts about 5 years ago, I'm curious about any new types of contacts that are out now that would be easy on my eyes. Short history: I'm nearsighted and wear glasses, but around 10-15 years ago I used to wear contacts regularly. Very gradually over time, the lenses are more and more irritating, and now if I use them they dry out my eyes and become annoying after half a day. Because of this, about 5 years ago I just stopped--they aren't worth the hassle. The brand I've always used was Johnson and Johnson, not sure the specific lens name though.

SO, I'm hoping the technology has improved and there are some contacts out there that are really easy on the eyes. Specifically, I read about a new kind that you can put in and forget about for a month. Sounds amazing if true. Surely if they're designed for a month, I can at the very least get through a full day wearing them. Anyone know about these lenses?

Looking for the best contacts for dry eyes

ishotjr — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:13:35 -0800

Should I stick with my current contact lenses, or go with one of two other brands? I'm about to buy a 6 month supply of contacts (2 boxes) and am trying to decide between staying with my current brand of contacts, or going with one of two other types. They all have the same BC and Diameter measurement options as my current ones. My vision is not too horrible, -3.75 in one eye, -4 in the other. I'm nearsighted, and have been wearing contacts on and off for about 8 years, mostly off. My #1 problem is dry eyes. My eyes are so dry that I even have to use drops regularly without contacts.

Looking at 1-800-CONTACTS, I find two other brands that seem like they could be better than my current ones. This makes my options:
1) Current contacts: Biofinity, made of comfilcon A, 48% water. These are my current ones, and I'm mostly happy with them. I still get really dry eyes if I wear them for too long.
2) PureVision, which are balaficon A, 36% water. You are able to wear these for 30 days day and night, although I would definitely not be doing that. I might wear them overnight occasionally, like if I was up all night studying or was too tired to take them out before bed. Yes, I did read this thread.
3) Focus Monthly, which are vifilcon A, and 55% water.

I'm tempted to go with the Focus ones because they have a higher water content, and I have dry eyes. However, I've read that contacts with a higher water content are not always better for dry eyes because they can suck more moisture from your eyes when the water in the contacts starts to evaporate. I don't know if this is true.
The reason the PureVisions are tempting is because they're supposed to be comfortable enough to wear overnight if desired. With my super dry eyes, I don't know if this is possible, but it would be very convenient.
All of my options are monthlies and are within $10 in price for 2 boxes, so cost is not a factor.

One important factor is that I don't plan on wearing contacts every day. When I have contacts I wear them at most every other day. When I run out, I tend to go months without getting more, just wearing glasses every day. I'm going back to school, though, and I can see things in class much better with contacts, and get frustrated with dirty glasses. I also like being able to wear regular sunglasses instead of my heavy rx ones with thick lenses. It would be nice to be able to fall asleep in my contacts without worrying too much, but if they aren't comfortable enough to do so anyway, it's a useless feature (referring to the PureVisions).

I would appreciate any input from those who have used any of these brands of contacts. I need to buy these before the end of the month because my Flexible Spending from my job will run out then, so I don't really have the ability to ask my optometrist to try any (and she will try to get me to buy them through her, which is more expensive).

How do I properly sync Outlook with Google?

mr_silver — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:58:51 -0800

I'm trying to find a way to synchronize Outlook Calendar (on Windows) with Google Calendar that actually works - as my current solution doesn't. Bonus points if I can sync contacts as well. I want to synchronize Outlook with Google and then use Google's Exchange support so that I can get this information on whatever phone I'm using at the time.

At present I use Google Calendar Sync and a periodic export and import of a CSV containing my contacts.

This sucks for several reasons but the main one is that the Google application is buggy and has a habit of randomly deleting appointments. This is a well known bug and no fix seems to be coming any time soon. It's happened enough times for me to want to get away from the application.

The second major one is that exporting a CSV from Outlook and then importing it into Google isn't really syncing, a pain in the backside and prevents me from making any changes on the go because they'll just get lost.

I've done a search on the internet and there seems to be quite a few options - none of which appear to be free and several of which that want you to pay a monthly fee.

So, my question is - can you recommend any Windows applications which are free and sync calendar and contacts with Google?

How do I check that my phone's contacts are safely backed up?

Marquis — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:38:27 -0800

How do I locate the contacts I've just sync'ed from my smartphone (Windows Mobile 6.1) on my PC? For a friend:

I've just installed ActiveSync 4.5 and have apparently successfully sync'ed my Samsung Jack to my PC.

I'm going to need to do a hard reset on the phone to solve some other issues (corrupted ringtones) and want to make sure that the sync'ed contacts are complete and intact. It's important that when I reset the phone, everything is there to import from backups. I'm terrified of losing the 500+ contacts in my Mobile Outlook.

Where are the contact files transferred to? They aren't in the file I've designated to receive all photos, sounds and other files.

Thanks!

Looking for a wiki-database hybrid

raamenchan — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:27:46 -0800

I'm looking for a wiki-database hybrid that I can self host. I want the wiki part so I can create a personal database of ideas and resources for myself (recipes, travel notes, lists, etc).

But I also would like a database aspect to it because I would like to use that same wiki for contacts management as well. And while I can do it with a wiki, it would be much better if it had fields to make the contacts more searchable, as well as has the ability to export information (probably as CSVs) for email programs.

With the hybrid, I could also set up a sort of CRM system for my personal business as well due the to flexibility.

I actually found something that matches what I'm looking for: wikidBASE, but it runs on Django and my web host doesn't support it.

So I was wondering if there were any alternatives. I'm also not hot on the appearance of wikidBASE, but I can live with it as long as I have the function... which I currently don't even have =/

(I currently also have very little knowledge on what things like Django, and the platform Python that it runs on, actually are.)

If any of you are familiar with David Allen's GTD, this is sort of like an online extension of the General Reference system that he employs.

My contacts need a fire-proof home.

RobertFrost — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:39:41 -0800

Anybody know of a worthwhile, online address book? I am looking for an online address book to be the internet version of my little black book. I know there are many out there, but I haven't been able to find one that suites all of my desires. This is what I want:

1. The ability to apply multiple tags to entries and to view/export entries according to tags (i.e. family, business, friends)
2. The ability to input international address (keepm for example has a "country" field, but only allows for a 5 digit zip code, meaning Japanese addresses - with an 8 digit zip - are a no go)
3. The ability to export into an Excel spreadsheet, or even better directly to Word labels (Christmas card time).
4. If possible, the ability to choose which contacts to export, and which fields to export
5. This may be me dreaming - but some way to keep a tally of how often you have emailed a particular person. I live overseas and travel a lot, so I send a lot of postcards to keep in touch with friends and family. It would be nice to be able to view my address according to how many mailings I've sent them so I can be sure I'm mailing everyone evenly.
6. An interface where data entry is easy (I have an entire book worth of addresses to input).

I thought about just making a spreadsheet on google docs, but there is no way to export them to labels and I do a pretty massive mailing at xmas/new years time that I would prefer to print up labels for (currently I hand write them, it takes ALOT of time).

Thanks for any guidance you might have!

Have Contact Lenses Improved Lately?

DMan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:26:17 -0800

Have there been any significant advances in the world of contact lenses in the last 5-7 years? So, I've been wearing glasses since I was six or so. I can't honestly remember exactly what's wrong with my eyes (silly, I know, but I just go in, do the eye exam, they write some numbers down and I get new glasses). I know for sure that I'm nearsighted, but my glasses also contain prisms, so I know I have some other condition as well.

It's been 5-7 years since I asked if contacts were an option for me, and I realized the other day that I really need to figure that out next time I go for an appointment. When I asked several years ago, I was told that it wasn't at all an option for me. I'm not really sure why.

So I plan to ask that next time I go, but in the meantime, does anyone here know enough about optometry to tell me if it's possible that contact lens technology has advanced sufficiently in the last several years that it might be a possibility? You aren't my eye doctor, and even if you are an eye doctor, I certainly haven't given you enough information about my specific condition for you to tell me for sure. I'm just looking for some general information about the issue.

So, does contact lens technology advance? Or has it been pretty much the same for many years?

Microsoft is holding my friends, my family and my life hostage!

DetonatedManiac — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:53:47 -0800

How do I get contacts/calendar off my Win Mobile 5 device, onto my computer and then on to my new iPhone without Outlook? I'd like to migrate to Google Calendar in the process if possible. I have a windows mobile 5 phone with all my contacts and calendar events. For various reasons I don't own Outlook, so I kept all calendar and contact information on the old phone without backups.

Now I own an iPhone (3G S), the win mobile device is obsolete (thank god) but it still is holding my contacts and calendar hostage. How do I make the switch?

I independently have heard good things about Google Calendar so I'd like to move to that if possible. It seems like it would be a good intermediary between my data and the iPhone once it is on my computer, but how do I get the data to my computer without Outlook? Or, barring that, how can I get a temporary (free) version of outlook so I can ferry stuff on to my computer and then get it to the iphone and be done with outlook?

Generally, I have never had to sync stuff before, this is all new territory for me. It is scary because all the docs I read online seem to want to "push" stuff to my phone, or say I must backup my data first... I'm afraid it will erase everything on my win mobile phone before I make the switch.

So in this whole process how do I not lose all my contact/calendar date?

Thanks for the help

PS - I sorta know the lingo but don't assume I know what I am doing... at all.

Don't it make your brown eyes blue...

amro — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:39:32 -0800

Do colored contacts on brown-eyed people look just as fakey now as they did 20 years ago? I have dark brown eyes, and about 20 years ago I had green colored contact lenses. In retrospect, they looked totally weird and fake. They just didn't have the depth to them that real irises have. Has colored contact technology moved forward any in the last two decades? Are there any colored contacts out there for brown-eyed folks that look convincingly like the real thing?

Stop Gmail auto-adding to my contacts list?

wastelands — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:20:45 -0800

Gmail, can you please stop automatically adding to my contacts list!? How do I get Gmail to stop adding every single person I email -- even one-off crap -- to my contacts list? It bugs me because those addresses show up in the keyboard address completion when I'm adding contacts to a new email. I find myself regularly pruning the All Contacts list. Even stuff that's NOT in any contacts list will auto-complete when I'm typing in the To/CC/BCC fields.

I absolutely love Gmail, but this feature drives me nuts. I've looked through Settings, nothing. I've googled for help, no real luck.

MeFi to the rescue?

Dry sore eyes without contacts

andraste — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:21:21 -0800

My eyes are dry and sore when I'm *not* wearing my contact lenses. Does anyone else experience this? I have a regular optometrist's checkup coming up next month at which I will ask about this, but I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced the weirdness of having sorer eyes *without* contacts, and whether/how it's been treated. Everything I can find via Google is about eyes being sorer with contacts, not without them.

I'm very short-sighted and have been wearing contact lenses for around 24 years. I generally wear them all day, every day as I don't like glasses - they make my eyes look disproportionately tiny, the lenses are very thick and my field of vision feels enclosed.

About eight months ago my eyes started looking a bit blurry. I went to the optometrist who worked out that my prescription had changed - my astigmatism has become more pronounced - and also that I had extraordinarily dry eyes. She also thought that I might have some problems with the composition of the lens itself, as just before I'd had the problems my contact lens manufacturer had discontinued my old lenses and switched to a new more oxygen-permeable type. I got my prescription changed, got new glasses and astigmatism contacts, and she treated the dry eye with gel and drops. The problem lessened a great deal although it didn't completely disappear, but my optometrist was satisfied I could keep my eyes happy with drops.

Lately the problem's begun increasing again, and I find it is actually worse when I'm not wearing my lenses. It almost feels as if the air against my naked eyeballs is too cold or too harsh, and if I concentrate on anything - computer, a book, TV - my eyes get watery and sore. When I have my lenses in, they feel more comfortable - but they're still getting a bit blurry again and my eyes are red a lot of the time.

However, I took a week off work recently and during that week I didn't have any problems with my eyes! They were comfortable and not red or watery - I didn't need to use the drops at all. During that time I spent almost as much time on the computer as I do at work, but I wasn't in the air-conditioned, high rise office in the city. Anyone else get *that* problem?

The lenses are fortnightly disposables - Acuvue Oasys for Astigmatism - and I religiously change them according to schedule, and I also use the gel at night and drops in the daytime.

Why do my right contact lenses keep ripping?

The corpse in the library — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:19:53 -0800

Why do my right contact lenses keep ripping? I wear soft, daily wear, disposable contacts. The right one keeps ripping while I'm wearing it, and I end up removing half a lens from that eye. Why does this happen? Why just in the right eye? How can I make it stop? Is this something I have to see my eye doctor about?

Is it possible that I'm walking around with five halves of contact lenses in my right eye, and they're causing the new lenses to rip? I've done an eye wash from time to time and never seen a part of a lens come out, but my eyes aren't irritated and I've always presumed the partial lenses came out without my noticing.

My left and right contacts are the same prescription and come from the same box. I'm right handed. I keep my fingernails fairly short. I've been wearing contacts for decades and this has never been a problem until recently; it's happened five times in the past few months.

Help me create order from contact chaos

embrangled — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:32:43 -0800

How are journalists and related professionals managing their contact lists these days? Dead tree contact books or digital wizardry, I want to know about both. After a busy short-term contract, I have three months of emails and scribbled notes comprising hundreds of beat-specific contacts. Clearly, I should have come up with a coherent way of dealing with these contacts, well, three months ago. Nevertheless, I now have a few free days to devote to creating a totally bitching contact management system.

Is the battered dead-trees contacts book of yore still the way to go? If so, what should go in the book and how should I organise it? I like the idea of a physical book, but I'm not keen on the mess that's created when contacts need to be amended, nor on the disruption of starting over when I finally run out of pages.

Alternatively, is there a standalone program that would let me carry my contacts with me on a USB thumbdrive? I like the idea of a searchable database with keywords and tags, but I can't install new software on the computers at work and I don't want to risk adding confidential sources to a web-based service.

How do you manage your contacts list?

Quick Contacts in NYC

bajema — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:55:20 -0800

My wife and I are staying in Manhatten near Time Square and she lost her contacts. Is there any way we can get her new contacts today?

So dry for me. Dry like a desert.

bradly — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:56:17 -0800

Does anyone have experience with punctal plugs (eye plugs) as a solution for dry eyes? Would you recommend the procedure? Dry eyes are killing me. It's really uncomfortable to wear contacts, and I prefer them to glasses. I find myself blinking constantly, and it's an overall uncomfortable experience. Even with glasses I still have problems. FWIW, I eat a balanced diet and plenty of water. A family member mentioned this procedure as an option. I'm curious about what MeFites have to say. Google provided mostly irrelevant information, and the few threads that mention the procedure on here are quite old.

Thanks in advance.

Remove duplicate phone numbers on a Nokia E71

qvtqht — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:07:54 -0800

My Nokia E71 ended up with a bunch of duplicate numbers for each contact. How do I remove them automagically? So I got a Nokia E71, and because I first imported my contacts from my SIM card (incomplete, since my old Blackberry Pearl doesn't support exporting to a SIM), I then used Google Sync to import them all again.

Now, I have a bunch of contacts that look like this:

First: Bob
Last: cell
Mobile: 212-555-1212
Work: 212-555-1212

This wouldn't bother me if the Nokia didn't annoyingly prompt me for which of the two numbers to use every time I want to call or SMS someone, even though they are the same.

How do I delete all of the mobile or work numbers where they are the same as the other field?

Also, maybe I could also merge first + middle + last into the first name field while I'm at it?

How can I easily backup Outlook?

mr_silver — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:56:38 -0800

Is there an easier and less manual way to export your calendar, contacts, tasks and notes in Outlook? Every month, I perform the following:

1. Create a folder with the current date
2. Export Outlook's calendar to a PST within that folder.
3. Export Outlook's contacts to a PST within that folder.
4. Export Outlook's tasks to a PST within that folder.
5. Export Outlook's notes to a PST within that folder.
6. Zip up the folder.
7. Upload it to a backup side and another computer.

The exporting of the data from Outlook to a file is easily the most time consuming part. Especially since it takes 10 clicks per task to get it into a PST file. As such, I can't help wondering if I'm doing it the most efficiently.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can speed up the exporting of this data?

(I don't want to purchase or use a backup service as I have my own storage area and feel more comfortable with something under my control. Nor would I like to backup to an alternative proprietary file format.)

Can I donate unused contact lenses?

snickerdoodle — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:04:13 -0800

Can I donate unused contact lenses? I just got LASIK, and I find myself with half a box of unused Acuvue contact lenses. Am I allowed to donate/give them away, and if so, what's the best way to do so? Google has turned up conflicting information, so I'm looking for first-hand knowledge. I'm in NY if that matters.